"100% electric Scania. What are the first impressions?"

16.05.2024

Pleasant, quiet, smooth, calming, simple, lively, enjoyable, joyful - these are the first impressions from the initial encounter with driving the fully electric Scania semi-trailer. Autosert Competence Center trainer Lenno Põder managed to hitch a ride on a Scania heading from Sweden to Riga from the Saue dealership and chat with a man who has already driven 13,000 kilometers with the vehicle.

Anders Gaasedal Christensen, a Scania vehicle testing engineer, visited the Scania Saue dealership, where Scania people from different regions of Estonia had gathered. He gave a brief overview of his personal driving experience with the 100% electric Scania truck. Then, he continued towards Riga, and we had a chance to chat until the Märjamaa gas station.

The best Scania so far! This is the vehicle that has made me smile the most. - A.G. Christensen.

What are the driving impressions of the electric Scania?

From a driver's perspective, the vehicle is simply fantastic. It is just good and comfortable to drive. You can't help but smile when driving it. If it weren't for the challenges of limited range and availability of charging stations, there would probably be no drivers who wouldn't want to work with it. However, with smart planning, it is possible to manage well with an electric truck in Europe. Charging stations are being added continuously. Mobile apps provide an overview of their locations, and a fully charged battery can last for at least four and a half hours of driving time. In reality, it’s not as bad as it might seem, according to the Scania engineer based on his experience.

To overcome prejudices about electric vehicles, Anders recommends trying driving them yourself. Just trying it out removes many of the prejudices against electric vehicles.

There are many myths about electric cars, and people are quite skeptical. Especially truck drivers...

There are myths because it's new, and naturally, there are certain challenges. Currently, there isn't a vehicle available that can work for a week and recharge the batteries over the weekend. That would be ideal. Today's technology allows for about 400 kilometers of driving on a single full charge.

A common myth is that charging the batteries takes a long time. Compared to filling up a diesel tank, yes, but with modern fast chargers, you can add about 300 kilometers of range with just an hour of charging. This is just the right length of a break after four and a half hours of driving. It’s not that bad.

Secondly, if the vehicle has to move on hilly terrain, the electricity consumption is much higher. Yes, and the same is true for a diesel engine vehicle. Climbing a hill consumes significantly more fuel for a diesel engine too. The same applies to an electric motor. However, a positive aspect of an electric truck is that when moving downhill, a large portion of the energy is regenerated back into the batteries during braking. The range is restored. So, it’s not as bad as it initially seems.

Thirdly, cold weather makes the electric truck consume more energy. Yes, just like conventional engine vehicles, an electric truck uses more energy in the cold. However, driving experience so far has shown that the battery actually lasts longer than initially feared. Many of the cold-related problems of electric passenger cars are projected onto trucks, leading to the assumption that when it's -20 degrees outside, the vehicle barely moves, as has happened with many passenger cars often reported in the media. But technology is advancing, and the Scania truck has excellent capability to operate in cold conditions.

Do working with electric trucks require any special additional skills from drivers?

Drivers need to get used to the charging process, which is very simple and quickly learned. The bigger challenges today are more about how to plan your driving schedule so that when the driver needs to take a break, there is also an opportunity to charge the truck at the stop. This requires some adjustment and new ways of thinking at first, but it’s all a matter of time before suitable places for charging and taking breaks are found.

In other aspects, driving the truck is similar to a conventional one. However, there are no gear shifts to feel, as the process is extremely smooth thanks to three electric motors, acceleration is pleasantly brisk, and even with a full load, it doesn’t feel like the vehicle is underpowered. On the contrary, the liveliness is ensured even then.

While working, the driver can still apply fuel-efficient driving techniques, as it is also possible to drive economically with an electric truck and save energy consumption. Much of its success depends on the driver’s behavior behind the wheel and their knowledge of eco-driving. All of this can be learned and improved.

We reached Märjamaa, and although the truck didn't need charging at this location since it was fully charged when coming from Sweden, we went through the charging process for informational purposes. And it turned out to be very easy. You make the payment with a chip card, activate the charger, insert the plug, and everything is straightforward and logical. Hands stayed clean, and there was no diesel smell.

Indeed, once the vehicle was put on charge, it felt like the perfect time to have a hamburger and take a short break, but that didn’t happen. Seeing an electric truck at the gas station immediately sparked interest among the truck drivers taking a hamburger break, and they joined us and started asking questions about the vehicle. This is how it usually is everywhere: wherever you go, interested people come up and start inquiring. So, we provided information to the interested parties, and the current goal is to raise awareness about the existence of electric trucks to more people.

Lenno Põder from Autosert and Anders Gaasedal Christensen, a test driver engineer of Scania, in Märjamaa gas station.

In conclusion, it can be said that there are certainly many skeptics of electric trucks and cars, and there are also those who, unfortunately, tend to ridicule all of this. But that's just how it is in life; people may not easily embrace changes because it seems like a move into the unknown. There are many fears. But this is all normal. Life progresses, and there is no escaping electric trucks in the future, and one fine day, they will certainly be used more widely. What could a driver have against it? Once you've tried something good, you don't want to go back to the old. The same goes for the electric Scania.

We hope that the charging infrastructure will develop faster and that the vehicles will become more accessible to transport companies so that, as they say, we can start contributing to a cleaner future.